HISTORY: Come, Clio.(study of history remains relevant)

National Review | January 24, 2000| | Copyright

THERE is an anecdote circulating in the history department at Harvard, where I have taught until recently, concerning a senior who was given an oral examination to determine the level of honors for which he qualified. Requested to describe the origins of World War II, he looked stumped. After a moment's hesitation, he asked: "Were there two of them?"

The story--even if apocryphal--illustrates the growing ignorance of history in our society as well as the sense of its irrelevance. The process seems to date from the 1960s, a decade that marked--for reasons that are ...

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